This week, Parade gets chummy with the stars of Shark Tank, ABC’s reality TV show where big dreams meet big money. Currently in its fifth season, the runaway hit, produced by Sony Pictures Television, achieved its highest rating yet in January, reaching 8.2 million viewers. The six moguls who invest in the next great American inventions—Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O’Leary, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec, and Lori Greiner—dish about the deals, the pitches that make them bite, behind-the-scenes details, and the real work that starts after the show is over.

The Deals They’re Proudest Of:

Kevin O’Leary: “Wicked Good Cupcakes. The sales went from $15,000 a month before the show to $264,000 after. I made my money back in 72 days.”

Robert Herjavec: “ChordBuddy [a guitar learning system]. Not just because we’ve made a lot of money, which we have, but we were able to buy a factory and employ 20 people.”

Lori Greiner: “My most successful is Scrub Daddy [the scratch-free sponge]. We’ve surpassed $15 million in sales within a year.”

True Confessions:

Mark Cuban: “I didn’t think the show would last! What I didn’t get then is, it’s not really a business show; it’s inspirational.”

Barbara Corcoran: When asked to alternate with Lori Greiner starting in season three, “I thought I was being edged out of the show. But I was mistaken, and I’ve found out since that it’s very nice to have another woman on the set.”

Daymond John: “I was at a party and Leonardo DiCaprio was like, ‘I’m a big fan of all you Sharks.’ That was fascinating.”

Behind the Scenes:

The Sharks know nothing about the entrepreneurs before they enter the “tank,” and they aren’t allowed to do electronic searches during the pitches. They have to pay close attention to catch important information. “If you miss something and another Shark snaps on it, it’s too late,” says Herjavec.

This season 35,000 entrepreneurs applied for their shot (both online and via nationwide casting calls), up from just 1,000 in season one. Of those, only 157 were selected to pitch the Sharks, and 112 of those pitches will air over this season’s 28 episodes.

Pitches can range from 20 minutes (“For dumb stuff,” says Cuban) to two hours, with most lasting about an hour; each is edited down to about 10 minutes of airtime. As a day’s filming session drags on, the Sharks can get a little punchy. “You don’t want to be the entrepreneur at the end of the day,” says Corcoran. “They never get bought!”

Corcoran thinks the male Sharks don’t give women entrepreneurs the same shake as the men, “unless they’re beautiful, then they get an extra shake or two.” O’Leary counters, “She’s full of it. I invest in a lot of woman-run deals, because they make me money.”

After the Deals Close:

After the deals close, the real work begins for the Sharks. “Filming is the easiest part,” says Cuban. “The hardest part is that you actually have to have a connection and help these companies.” That fact has helped the Sharks change the country’s perception of business moguls, who have long been equated with the toxic likes of Wall Street’s Gordon “Greed Is Good” Gekko. “We’re entrepreneurs helping fledgling businesspeople,” says Greiner. Adds Herjavec, “Shark Tank shows you don’t have to be a jerk to be successful.”

“This is a wide audience of Americans who want to improve their lives,” says executive producer Mark Burnett (Survivor, The Voice). “We’ll never know how many people out there have started something as a result of watching Shark Tank. And that’s great.”